Double blow

Bangladesh's ICC World Twenty20 campaign received a setback yesterday as the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that they had found the bowling actions of both Arafat Sunny and Taskin Ahmed to be illegal.

The press release from the ICC stated: “Arafat's analysis revealed that the elbow extension for majority of his deliveries had exceeded the 15 degrees' level of tolerance permitted under the ICC Regulations for the Review of Bowlers Reported with Suspected Illegal Bowling Actions, while not all of Taskin's deliveries were legal.”

The bowlers will have to rectify their actions and then go through another test, akin to the one they gave in Chennai last week, in order to bowl again in international cricket.

Taskin and Sunny had taken part in a three-hour training session yesterday morning and presumably were not aware of the results when they spoke to the media in confident tones.

“This will not be the end of my career. If my action does get deemed illegal, I can come back with another test,” said Sunny.

In the same vein, Taskin said: “I'm not afraid of anything. I have gone through tougher times during the BPL. I had to fight with my injury and a lot more. I'm not scared.”

Once the results became public however, they could not be reached for comment.

As a result of the ICC's decision Bangladesh will be allowed to replace these two players. According to the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), slow left-armer Saqlain Sajib and off-spinner Shuvagata Hom are likely to replace Sunny and Taskin respectively.

The news of the suspension caused quite a stir among Bangladesh fans and it was an aspect that was quite evident on social media.

Bangladesh's fans, had already been criticising the ICC ever since both bowlers were reported following the game against the Netherlands on March 9 and the surge of critical comments further increased once the bowlers were officially suspended from bowling yesterday.

The question that seemed to dominate the cricketing fraternity of the country was the timing of the call on the actions of the bowlers.

Both Sunny and Taskin had taken part in several international competitions, from the World Cup in 2015 to the recently concluded Asia Cup, but not once were they reported.

To be called for a flawed bowling action during the mega event, despite not appearing to have undergone any changes to their bowling actions, was an aspect that surprised many in the cricketing fraternity.

Former national captain Aminul Islam, who currently works for the ICC as a cricket development officer, said that he was surprised to see Taskin's action being reported.

“I have been following Taskin for a very long time and I never thought he was a suspect bowler. I don't quite know which area the tests focused on. But since his action has been deemed illegal he now needs to go through the process.

“He is still a very young bowler and I am sure this won't affect his career as much,” said Aminul.

Former national captain Roquibul Hasan, who has also officiated many domestic games in Bangladesh as a match referee, voiced a similar sentiment.

“To be honest with you, I was a bit surprised when they were both called since the same match referees and umpires saw them in previous games. Why now? To the naked eye Taskin does not seem to be a suspect bowler.

“Having said that it would be wrong to say that the bowlers can't do anything wrong now just because they didn't do anything wrong in the last two years. I don't think that this is a part of a controversy against Bangladesh. It's sad but they just need to go through the corrective measures and come back,” said Roquibul.

There were a number of other former national players who spoke along the same line as Aminul and Roquibul but preferred not to be quoted on record.